Seasons of Love
by wouldtheywriteasongforyou
Summary: How do you measure a year? Measure all of those five hundred twenty-five thousand six hundred minutes in daylights, in sunsets, in midnights, in cups of coffee, in inches, in miles, in laughter, and in strife. / a four-shot based on the four seasons and the RENT song. / i. winter - jamesxlily


**Author's Note:  
Disclaimer: Happy I-**_**like**_**-like-you Day!**

Written for the HPFC Off the Block Competition "Freestyle Extra Hard"; Star Challenge "Capella"; Your Favourite Hogwarts House Bootcamp [GRYFFINDOR] "36. snowflake"

Fluff is not my forte, tbh, but since today is Valentine's Day I thought I would give it a go. There is implied romance; however, this one-shot is centred on friendship. As for the Marauders, Peter doesn't have much face time here but that's only because I am working with a word count limit – I am _not_ replacing him with Lily or pretending like he does not exist. And this is a muggle!AU if you care about that sort of detail or not.

14 February 2014. Word Count: 1,485

**"Oh my Godric," she breathed out. "It's you."**

* * *

**i. winter**

x

Lily Evans was not athletic. Her flexibility was rubbish and teamwork was a foreign concept to her independent personality. Despite being accident-prone, she was reliable and her friends could always depend on her to rescue them whenever they were in a bind. When Marlene had phoned her in a desperate search for a cabin mate at a ski lodge, Lily had readily agreed to vacation with her bestie over the Christmas holiday break.

Lily was currently regretting her decision.

Scheduling the necessary flights and planning her vacation to the Austrian Alps was a breeze. The ski lodge in Innsbruck that Marlene had booked was a resort in disguise, and though Lily might be a mess on skis, she could now count on relaxing in the lodge curled under a blanket with a cup of hot cocoa or Earl Grey in hand afterwards. That winter break, her flights went without a hassle – there were no airport mishaps or lost baggage. She flew into Salzburg and took a bus over to Innsbruck so she could receive a scenic tour of the postcard perfect snow-capped Alps. Perhaps it wasn't the best idea since she had to ignore her vehicle-induced nausea for the hundred-and-twenty miles drive from Salzburg to Innsbruck, but she did enjoy the mountain views.

Oh no, things only started to go terribly wrong once Lily had reached the ski lodge.

Marlene had neglected to mention that she was bringing along her current boytoy and his three stooges to Innsbruck. It turned out that Marlene was bunking with Sirius and that Lily had been summoned on this winter vacation just to share a room with one of the Marauders (apparently that's what the gang of idiots had labelled themselves) so that the party of six could receive a group-discount on their lodging and ski rentals.

"You can pick who you room with," Marlene said as if that would make everything better.

Two of the three roommate options were present. Remus looked . . . decent, but Peter was downright shifty and Lily did not trust him one bit.

"James," Lily declared the missing Marauder and desperately hoped he would not show up. She didn't care about the monetary discount anymore – she was pissed at Marlene for forgetting to share the full details of this trip until Lily had paid for her travel arrangements. Now Lily was stuck in Austria with no way out until her flight back to London in two weeks.

x

She distanced herself from her bestie that night during dinner (not that Marlene noticed, the way she was star-gazing at Sirius). Lily picked a secluded table in the covered porch section of the lodge which overlooked the mountains she would be skiing on come morning.

"Guten Abend," a young man said as he approached her table.

Without turning from the window, Lily responded, "Nein, ich spricht Englisch."

"Pardon," the man said, switching into a Kentish English accent. "My apologies. I'll be your server this evening; what drink may I get you?"

"Water, please." She kept her gaze on the skiers and the falling snow the entire time.

x

James Potter did not show up that first night. Lily unpacked, keeping her items to one side of the room and closet, nevertheless. She was unsure whether or not she should be relieved that her roommate was conspicuously absent.

x

She had skied a grand total of two times in her nineteen years of existence and was terribly awful at it. Why had she agreed to come to Innsbruck again? Oh, right, because she was a push-over and she thought she was doing her bestie a favour. Currently, Sirius and Marlene were showing off on the black diamond slopes while Lily had bruises blossoming on her skin all thanks to that torturously steep bunny slope she had been practicing (falling) over on.

Remus had taken pity on her and gave her a refresher course on the basics of skiing – snowplough, squat, S-curves – but that had been this morning and the texture of the snow had changed since then. She found herself slipping and tripping over her skis in the icier patches. Remus said to avoid those places but they seemed to be _every_where. Lily was exhausted and tired and _Merlin_, she despised physical exercise.

_One last run_, she promised herself. _Then you can go inside._ She slid unsteadily over to the lift for the green slope and thankfully made it into the line without bowling anyone over. Lily got onto the ski lift without too much trouble, and at the last minute, someone skied expertly over and plunked down next to her.

"Beautiful day out," he commented as the ski lift carried them up the mountain.

Lily smiled softly. "It is," she agreed as she looked around at the slopes.

"Do you ski here often?"

She eyed her neighbour out of the corner of her tinted ski goggles. From what she could see, he was probably around her age for his face was stubbled with adolescence, his voice was sinfully deep but rough and cracked around the edges with inexperience, and his legs were long enough to be considered gangly.

"No," Lily said. "Just here for the holiday break with my friends."

He nodded and was silent for a moment. He obviously was uncomfortable with being quiet, though, for he started talking once again. "You must be an expert," he commented. Clarifying his random thought, he said: "You're not using any ski poles."

Lily laughed awkwardly. "I was taught to ski without them. Also, it's more shit to pick up when you fall. I do that a lot." She gestured to the upcoming lift stop. "I'm getting off here; good luck on your run."

"You too." He shifted so he wouldn't be in her way when she skied off from the lift. However, she promptly tangled herself with her skis. She lay sprawled in the snow, miserable and sorely embarrassed to have made such a klutz out of herself in front of the stranger, and closed her eyes in defeat.

"Ow," she whimpered to herself.

There was a sudden _whoosh_ of snow, and when she opened her eyes she saw herself looking up at the guy who had been sitting next to her on the lift. "Are you all right?" he asked. "Should I call for Ski Patrol?"

"I'm fine," she said quickly. "I'm just having a shitty week and this is icing on the cake." She made no move to get up.

"You have to get down the hill somehow," he said, barely disguising the amused tone in his voice. "And you can't ski uphill back to the lift. C'mon, you'll be fine. I'll go behind you and spot you the entire time." He pulled her up and nodded encouragingly. "You can trust me."

Lily snorted. "I bet you just want to stare at my ass as I go down." Nevertheless, she skied down because a nice warm fire and a cup of Earl Grey tea awaited her in the lodge. She fell a couple more times but the stranger was always there to catch her.

x

"Look who decided to show up!" Sirius exclaimed a few evenings later. Lily and Marlene had since made amends, and all five of their ski group were defrosting in front of the ski lodge's main fireplace.

"Shut up, Padfoot," a familiar voice said good-naturedly. "Mum and dad have been swamped with the tourists ever since the Winter Olympics were held in Innsbruck a few years back. I've been waitressing around the lodge for them these past few days."

Lily nearly tumbled out of her chair in shock. She jerked upright and turned to face the skier who had accompanied her on the lift and slopes. Their eyes met at the same time and recognition lit the proverbial light bulbs above their heads.

"Oh my Godric," she breathed out. "It's you." She had thought that she would have never seen him again, and that had made her uncharacteristically sad when she had bid him farewell and gone inside the lodge.

He grinned. "It's me," he agreed. "Hi, I'm James."

"Prongs here works at the lodge," Remus explained James' absence from the group. "His parents own this place."

"You – you fetched me water," Lily said eloquently to James.

"So I did."

"And you saved my life."

"Well, I wouldn't phrase it like that – "

"He's just being modest," Peter helpfully interjected.

"No, Peter, I'm not," James said. "But thank you."

Lily stared at James for a moment. She couldn't believe that their paths had crossed once again. Then, without thinking, she blurted out: "Do you believe in fate?"

James blushed but answered back steadfastly: "I do."

Both knew that the other meant _Do you believe in true love_? And the answer would always be a resolute _yes_ from Lily and James for they had met each other.

x


End file.
